Roan is a coat pattern and it represents a mixture of white hairs mingled with coloured hairs i.e. having the base colour (such as red, black or brown) muted and lightened by a mixture of white hairs.

For example, a blue roan cocker is a cocker that has black hairs mixed with white hairs. The same applies to orange roans, red/orange hairs mixed with white hairs and chocolate roan, brown hairs mixed with white hairs.

There are various shades of roan ranging from light (almost a "black & white" dog or "liver & white", "orange & white" etc.) through to medium, silver/steel and dark roan. The depth of colour depends on how many coloured hairs are present. All parti-coloured blue "roan" puppies are born black and white (like Friesian cows), over a period of weeks as the coat grows the individual white and coloured hairs mix to form the roan pattern. Liver roan pups are born chocolate & white and orange roan pups are often born with very little colouring (often a silvery white coat).  As a puppy matures the colouring starts to come through. To see the coat colour development of orange roans click here!

Here are a series of photos that show the changes! The photos follow the progress of the puppy with the five black spots down her back (she's called "Buttons") Buttons is blue roan.